Alisher Usmanov, 69, is something of a prototype oligarch. At least, if you define an oligarch as an extrovert wealthy, politically influential, socially well-connected and doing something in oil, ore and media entrepreneurs from far East. Usmanov is a native Uzbek, worth more than ten billion dollars, he made his money with oil, ore and media in Russia, among other things; he was once president of the International Fencing Federation and owner of an English football club. He knows Russian President Vladimir Putin personally and is said to have provided material and financial support to his regime, which is waging a war against Ukraine in violation of international law, according to the European Union – and has therefore put him on its sanctions list.
His wealth could hardly be overlooked in Germany either, in the south in the form of houses in Rottach-Egern on the beautiful and expensive Tegernsee, and in the north as a floating luxury property in the port of Hamburg. The dilbar is not missing in any hit parade of the biggest and most amazing yachts in the world.
German authorities arrested Usmanov’s 156-meter yacht “Dilbar”. Here she is pulled into a dock in Bremen.
(Photo: Focke Strangmann/AFP)
In the properties with a lake view and on board the dilbar German officials turned up last September on the basis of a decision by the Frankfurt district court and the local public prosecutor’s office – unannounced, as is usual when they have a search warrant with them. The Hessian investigators suspect Alisher Usmanov of money laundering in 88 cases, and they have been conducting a corresponding procedure since June 2022.
He feels like a victim of the political interests of the federal government
If you summarize the allegation in a very simplified way, the businessman in Russia is said to have circulated illegally earned money in Germany, for example via accounts at Bank USB in Frankfurt. Usmanow denies the allegations, he lodged a complaint – and was now successful before the Frankfurt Regional Court in a way that would have been a resounding victory in the club’s balance sheet if Usmanow’s former football club FC Arsenal in London’s Wembley Stadium had gone off the lawn like this: the searches were all unlawful in the court’s view.
The Munich law firm Gauweiler & Sauter is acting on behalf of the Embassy of Uzbekistan for the interests of the Uzbek citizen Usmanov. The court’s statements, the chancellery said, confirmed the impression that the actions of the German criminal prosecution authorities against Usmanov were “not factually justified, but factually politically motivated”.
A property of Usmanow on Tegernsee, where he owns several villas.
(Photo: Frank Hoermann/Sven Simon/Imago)
In fact, Usmanov sees himself as a victim of the political interests of the German government, which has long struggled to lay its hands on suspicious Russian assets circulating in the West. According to the Usmanov side, an example should be made of him – on the pretext of suspected money laundering and violation of the Foreign Trade Act. The allegation of tax evasion is being investigated in another investigation.
For the German criminal investigators, Usmanov’s victory naturally meant an ignominious defeat. In its 13-page reasoning, the Frankfurt appeals court has torn down the search warrant from autumn 2022. Ultimately, nothing remains – no suspicion that would have been necessary for such an action but was not there, not even an initial suspicion of money laundering.
The Allianz Arena and FC Bayern rooms were also searched
The allegations, for example, that Usmanov had cheated Russian taxes in Russia by selling raw materials via letterbox companies and transferred this money abroad illegally and in disguise – the public prosecutor’s office “exclusively, it seems, research by the Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny” had taken and not further substantiated. The Kremlin critic Navalny, who has since been arrested, had tracked down the money of inexplicably rich Russians before his arrest. The public prosecutor’s office did not provide any further evidence. The district court’s decision, on which the searches were based, has “serious legal errors”, wrote the district court: “vague clues” and “mere assumptions” were not enough. The decision should therefore be reversed.
In the course of the money laundering investigations, the Allianz Arena in Munich and the rooms of FC Bayern Munich were also searched in April. The investigators believe that Usmanov financed boxes in the Bavarian football temple with illegally acquired money. Like other actions before it, Usmanow said at the time, this search was also due to the “overzealousness of the public prosecutor’s office” to look for crimes where none existed. Usmanov’s press office even joked that the Frankfurt investigators were probably “fans of Borussia Dortmund and not Bayern Munich”. If that were the case, the chances of the public prosecutor’s office being successful would be quite good – this Saturday in the race for the German soccer championship. Dortmund go into the final as leaders.